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Northwest/Memphis Adventure: Part II | 10/18/07

After the dandruff attack I figured my night couldn't possibly get worse. If only I had truly realized why people referred to Northwest as Northworst. My plan landed way too late to connect to my flight to Tallahassee so after begging Ricky for another night of dog sitting I got a ticket for the "next" flight (2pm the next day) and set about demanding a hotel for the night. Long story short(er) my flight was the first of about six where people could not make their connecting flights. I was third in line for a hotel when quite literally hundreds of people appeared like extras in some sort of Braveheartesque move--storming through all available inlets to the Northwest ticket counter. After getting a hotel voucher I went outside in the pouring rain to take a shuttle to the hotel. The shuttle to my particular hotel held as many people as a Civic and was appearing at the airport every hour or so. After waiting almost 90 minutes some compatriots going to the same hotel found me and we elected to take a cab to the hotel.

When the six of us arrived we discovered the line to check in was already about six people out the door. About an hour later (11pm) we were all checked in to our respective rooms and we met up in the "restaurant" for some buffet grub. Since the only offerings were rolls, mac and cheese, and some unidentified meat in an equally unidentifiable sauce we elected just to go to the bar instead. After a few hours our eclectic group had swelled to nine. We all took turns bitching about Northwest and how Memphis was the worst conceivable place to have this happen. It was a very enjoyable group and around midnight it was decided that the only way to prevent the day from being the worst experience ever was to bribe the shuttle driver to take us to Beale Street outside of downtown Memphis for some more drinking.

The only rule we followed was making sure we always had nine people whenever we left a bar and we did exceptionally well. Beale Street reminded me of New Orleans but one of more gregarious members was able to shoulder the load of keeping the poor and clingy at bay. By 2am we were ready to leave but the fact our shuttle driver was AWOL we would later just settle for a random cab out of desperation to get at least a couple hours sleep before our flights the next day. Since I didn't have any luggage (see the rest of the trip AND now) my prep time was going to be low.

For as horrific as the day was it was a very nice reminder that at the end of the day anyone can get along nicely with anyone else--a fact that eludes just about everyone 99% of the time. So, to my eight six-hour friends--the pharmacist, architect, middle school special ed teacher, family attorney, glass chemist, sales exec, machinist, and insurance agent trainer, thank you.